Girls Who Rocked the World by Amelie Welden (1998) Paperback

by Amelie Welden

Excellent Book

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Childrens, Womens, Feminism

116 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Kyisha Walter]

I bought a copy of this book from work, and it took me quite some time to finish it. I found that I learned a lot reading it and would love to see an updated version. I think it would also benefit from more pictures and maybe also pictures in color to entice young readers to read. I read a review that pointed out that the writers assume that all the readers of this book are girls. I hadn't noticed this myself and while that is the intended audience, I agree that there should be more of an attempt to be inclusive. I do not like to perpetuate the idea that books about women do not innately interest male readers because I find this to be reductive. Overall, this was a good showing of female excellence, and I enjoyed that the girls were presented in chronological order. I also have the second of this series so I will see if it is more of the same or if it improves on this one. Either way I believe that these books should be updated and republished for readers of today.

[Audrey]

This is a fascinating collection of stories of girls who followed their dreams and made a difference in the world.

[Marie F]

I previewed this before school kicked off, but the kiddos finally checked it out. I think the biggest issue my kids had (and it caused *huge* annoyance and groans whenever it reared) was the way it constantly assumes the reader is a girl. One of them pointed out that it undermines the whole idea of highlighting overlooked females in history to expect it will only be of interest to young girls and that it "makes it feel like boys don't need to recognize female achievements because they are not as good or important anyway, so it almost feels more sexist than not mentioning them in the first place." Overall though they enjoyed the stories. They also sometimes liked the quotes from kids, scattered throughout. But they are unsure if they want to try the sequel anytime soon, seemingly largely because of the author addressing the reader as a fellow female rather than content or style. (Admittedly it's a rather unfortunate detail, it bothered me a bit--I rolled my eyes--but I didn't expect it to alienate the kids... I wonder if it is generally an overlooked trait or if it pushes away other readers. Sad reason to lose young nonfiction readers.)

[Amy]

This is the third book of short biographies I've read with my daughter - the other two are Girls Who Grew Up Great and
Women Who Achieved Greatness.

Of the three, this one seems to have the most variety so far. I think this is because the author uses a slightly different selection criteria - to be included, a girl had to accomplish something before the age of 20.

All three of these books make decent bedtime reading material - it's very easy to go through a couple of biographies and then stop. No worries about cliffhangers at the end of chapters.

[Jill]

A nice compilation of girls who have excelled and made a huge impact in their respective fields at such a young age. Most of them, I haven't heard of until now. Each heroine is given a brief introduction. If, however, the reader wishes to know more about a specific girl, one can always refer to the list of recommended readings graciously provided by the author at the end of the book for supplementary reading.

[Shoshana]

Non- fiction means that a book is true. It could include the Holocaust, World War i and ii, sports, and more. The book Girls who Rocked the World is about how different famous girls grew up. It also tells us about how powerful they were and how they made a change in the world. Girls who Rocked the World is a chapter book and each chapter is about a different girl and how they grew up. The chapters that I focused on were: Cleopatra, ruler of Egypt; Phillis Wheatley, a poet; Martina Hingis, a tennis champion; Sheryl Swoopes, a pro-basketball player; and Sarah Bernhardt, an actress. The book is organized with a table of contents, pictures of each girl at the beginning of their chapter, a brief description of each girl, quotes from the girls, little girls answers to the question how they will rock the world when they are older, and other facts on the side.

I think that the book is organized in a good way because it is easy to find what you are looking for. I thought the author’s writing style was fascinating because she wrote from the girls perspective.This book is very interesting to ready because you are able to learn about new people you might not have heard of and also learn new things that you didn't know before. I learned many things from this book but one thing in particular that I learned was about how different girls went through easy and tough times when they were children and even adults. I think that the author is talented because she did a great job but i also think she should've added more stories that the girls wrote. I usually don't like non fiction books but I really enjoyed this one. One pro is that you get to learn about real famous girls. I think someone who would like this book is a young girl who likes to learn about famous people and I would rate this book as a 8.

[MaryKay]

I listened to the audio version of this book narrated by Christina Moore. The stories were positive and uplifting. I liked this book better than others with similar themes such as "Heroes for My Daughter" by Brad Meltzer and "Amelia to Zora: Twenty-Six Women Who Changed the World". I'm sure there are controversial details in the lives of the women who are discussed that are glossed over. The stories in "Girls Who Rocked the World" are easy to follow and very accessible.

[Jacki]

This was another group of biographical stories assigned for the literature groups we have in class. I read through each one, so I would know the information presented. A short 2-3 page biography is given on women who made a difference or contributed to something in history when they were young. Examples are: S.E. Hinton, Queen Victoria, Indira Ghandi, and Helen Keller. Each one was short and to the point and I think they are good pieces to keep the students interested.

[Sue]

Interesting choice of people here. I'm very glad that I didn't skip through or give up before the end because this lady really did save the best for last. Who had ever seen a picture of Mother Theresa (of India) when she was young?

I was blown away with some of the choices at the end: Wang Yani (painter) and Vanessa-Mae Nicholson (violinist). Simply beautiful people, doing extraordinary things.

Sorry, lost a star because of the terrible cover, plus some editorial and spelling errors.

[Natalie Lee]

Babe Didrikson was good at all sorts of sports, baseball, basketball, golf, and others. This book is about different girls in the world that did something that helped us lately and it was only a few pages about this girl so I didn't got to know that much about her. Babe wasn't her real name but it was her nickname since she was a good baseball player, all her friends called her babe.

[Ubalstecha]

Another in the collection of "Rocked the World" books that collect the stories of amazing women who starting having an impact when they were very young. As with the other books in this series, there is too much of an emphasis on the arts and sports.

[Edgar]

Good feminist Book and Good History facts to fill your brain with knowledge....

[Kendra]

My niece is one of the contributors to this book.

[Blair]

this book is very inspirational.

[Sheri]

I think it was a very good book. it was written to a young audience and I believe they would enjoy it. It puts everything in small bites, easy to take but not to much.

[Jack C.]

Biography

Quarter 1